First off this goes for the people who already watched it and for those who did not see it or will not care to see it also read on. Basically i wanna know your thoughts of the movie because one thing is for sure, I know half of you will love the movie and ther other half will hate it as well.
Anyways, I got to watch it Friday night, had to bring the family (girlfriend, daughter *7*, kid sister *18* and mother *54*) to watch the movie. At first I thought it was just going to be a bad retake on the original and also had low expectations about it as well, especially that the title should have been called The Kung Fu kid. So I went to watch it in a room fool of teenagers and adults and the only kid I could make out would just be my daughter, so that got be guessing and feeling a little sense of hope that somehow this movie can deliver. As the movie began I thought to myself that I should have listened to all those other people saying that the movie will suck and that it will be too boring or too childish since its PG movie (people that had not seen it yet), but I can honestly say that what I saw in terms of action would be more for a PG-13 rating at least. In other words, being a martial arts movie kind of guy judged it for what it was 8/10 although I'd rather see and older karate kid or adult per-say, the fighting was pretty nice and genuine hong kong style and effects. Heck even my little sister who hates to watch anything PG or lame in terms of action, also enjoyed the movie very well. With the acting although Jaden had a couple of "wth" parts over all he improved and for him to just start out learning some martial arts moves he's pretty ok for a little kid and I was also looking for any stunt double takes on him since his parents produced the movie, they wouldnt want him to get hurt, but honestly if not all, most of his physical scenes were all done by him and speaking of his moves, what he did in place of the "crane Kick" like the orginal, was for me all out better that the crane kick (dont want to spoil it, gotta watch it to see what I'm talking about). Overall, with all the drama,action,comedy,suspense and slight romance this movie was worth watching. I gave it 8/10 (-1 although using a 12yearold boy for the part was ok enough, they would have done better with someone a little older / -1 because there should have been more fight scenes lol)
I know to some it may sound weird or downright lame, but I enjoyed watching it again a 2nd time around, had an even better experience.
Watch the movie with an open mind not a closed one to where you just hate it for trying to copy so much of the orginal, because after watching it twice all I can see is that they did it pretty good with this one, there's more to the movie that what you see in the trailer, so much more